I'm sorry it's been a week since my last post, but what a week it's been! You see, I had originally planned to jet off to Sydney for three days to do some routine work, but one of my colleagues in New Zealand has been having trouble with an instrument for over three weeks. I spent many hours with him on the phone, trying out all sorts of tricks, but we had no joy. So, we decided he needed some on site help, and with that I was on a plane (middle seat again) to Christchurch. I arrived onsite at 4pm, and the instrument was fixed by 4.15. So, after some serious ribbing of Mark, and a few beers and a lovely curry at my favourite New Zealand restaurant - Two Fat Indians, then jumped on a plane and came home again!
Get a look at their mouth watering menu at www.twofatindians.co.nz
But I digress. I must finish my narrative on the wonderful Tasmania.
Ok, so after our adventure at Port Arthur, we headed back to base camp for a quiet night in with pizza and 'another' bottle of wine, and a relatively early night for our last day....
We arose with a tinge of sadness as it was nearly time to go home. We packed up and and said goodbye to our home for the past 4 nights, and decided to head for a place called Bonorong Wildlife Park. Now, as many of you know, we've been to loads of wildlife sanctuaries since we got to oz, and we really love the wildlife here, but this place was just the best! As it was a monday, the place was practically deserted, and we had a lovely time visiting all the different animals. They particularly specialise in the Tassie Devil, a very odd animal indeed. They seem aggressive, and yet their bodies are very oddly balanced, with very broad, obtuse hips that make them look like they are riddled with arthritis! You can see below they have a shiney wet nose - aparrently their noses are constaly wet, except for when they are sleeping. They are marsupials like the roos, wallabies, wombats and koalas we all know, but these fellas are pretty aggressive. They are meat eaters, and when they kill, they polish iff the whole animal - bones, skin and hair! they have very powerful jaws that can easily crunch and grind the bones of their prey. Not my favourite aussie animal, by a long shot.
Helen and I have a real affinity with wombats, and sure enough there was the most adorable little thing there. The enclosures have very low walls to them, allowing you to interact with many of the animals. The womnat we made friends with was called Molly, and she loved to have her back scratched - she'd stop in her tracks and jump up and down at first and then roll over for a tummy tickle. Then when you stopped, she would trundle up to the edge of the enclosure and climb up for a closer look at us. Her she is...
I would love to have one as a pet.
Anyhow, next off was the Koalas, and they are, as always, sweet and cuddly - we actually got to hold these ones! 
Then we headed to see the roos and wallabies - there were hundreds of the things and many of them were carrying their babys in their pouches! We didn't get many good pics, because they often hid away when we came close but here's one of the little blighters popping out to say hello....
So we finished off at Bonorong Park with a picnic (bacon sandwiches) that was often rudely interrupted by some nearby captive cockatoos. We have seen quite a few of these little monkeys on our travels, and we are amazed at how cheeky thay can be. They talk to you and almost hold a conversation sometimes, aven giving you gifts - I was once given a large twig, freshly plucked form a eucalyptus tree, stripped of all it's leaves and gently passed to me by the bird. As you turn to walk away, the say 'where are you going?' or 'goodbye'. It's quite amusing playing with these chaps, and you get a real sense of playfulness with them.
So now we had around 3 hours to kill before our flight home, so we went for a drive. I think we must have driven into a worm-hole of a time-warp or something, because we suddenly found ourselves not in Tasmania, but at a primary school in the Middle East. See for yourself - I plucked up the courage to leap out of the car, risking mortar bombs and sniper fire while Helen took the photo:
How exciting was that! What a great end to a great holiday.
We would have no qualms about going back to Tassie, and we both said it would be a lovely place to live, even to retire to one day....
So that was our epic journey over, and back it was to the grind of work and bizzing around the place. Our next big jaunt will be in January, where we are planning to go and see the great Ayer's Rock, or Uluru. More on that another time. In the meantime, my mum and brother are coming in three weeks time, so we better get started cleaning this house....
Catch you all soon...
Chris
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